uisite for the permanent maintenance of our
North-West frontier[304]."

[Footnote 304: Lady B. Balfour, _op. cit._ p. 255. For a defence of this
on military grounds see Lord Roberts' _Forty-One Years in India_, vol.
ii, p. 187; and Thorburn's _Asiatic Neighbours_, chap. xiv.]

But by this time all hope of peace had become precarious. On June 13,
the day of opening of the Congress of Berlin, a Russian Mission, under
General Stolieteff, left Samarcand for Cabul. The Ameer is said to have
heard this news with deep concern, and to have sought to prevent it
crossing the frontier. The Russians, however, refused to turn back, and
entered Cabul on July 22[305]. As will be seen by reference to
Skobeleff's "Plan for the Invasion of India" (Appendix II.), the Mission
was to be backed up by columns of troops; and, with the aim of
redoubling the pressure of Russian diplomacy in Europe, the Minister for
War at St. Petersburg had issued orders on April 25, 1878, for the
despatch of three columns of troops which were to make a demonstration
against India. The chief force, 12,000 strong, with 44 guns and a rocket
battery, was to march from Samarcand and Tashkend on Cabul; the second,
consisting of only 1700 men, was to stir up the mountain tribes of the
Chitral district to raid the north of the Punjab; while the third, of
the same strength, moved from the middle part of the Amu Daria (Oxus)
towards Merv and Herat. The main force set out from Tashkend on June 13,
and after a most trying march reached the Russo-Bokharan border, only to
find that its toils were fruitless owing to the signature of the Treaty
of Berlin (July 13). The same disappointing news dispelled the dreams of
conquest which had nerved the other columns in their burning march.

[Footnote 305: Parl Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), pp.242-243;
_ibid._ Central Asia, No. 1, pp.165 _et seq._]

Thus ended the scheme of invasion of India to which Skobeleff had
lately given shape and body. In January 1877, while in his Central Asian
command, he had drawn up a detailed plan, the important parts of which
will be found in the Appendices of this volume. During the early spring
of 1878, when the Russian army lay at San Stefano, near Constantinople,
he drew up another plan of the same tenour. It seems certain that the
general outline of these projects haunted the minds of officers and men
in the expeditions just referred to; for the columns withdrew northwards
most slowly and rel